


that bird inside your chest is still beating its wings

by likewinning



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Comment Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-19 16:50:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3617139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likewinning/pseuds/likewinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been seven months since he saw so much as a bat signal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	that bird inside your chest is still beating its wings

Jason's in Paris when Bruce calls him. He's busy fighting some monster that decided to terrorize a bunch of tourists, so he misses the call – but he's not sure he would've answered it, anyway.

He hasn't been in Gotham for six months. The last time he only stayed for a few days, just long enough to collect some things, hand off a couple of rare books to Alfred, and make sure the Joker was still MIA.

It's not until he and Roy are on a train bound for Berlin that he listens to the voicemail, and he hits delete before he can do something stupid like listen to it again.

"Jay," it starts. "I was just –"

*

He's in Rio when Bruce calls again. This time he picks up – he's drunk, and he almost drops the phone into a glass of cranberry and vodka, and he can barely hear anything over the noise from the bar, the band playing some cover of a pop song in the background.

"Who's dead?" he asks, instead of hello.

Roy's leaning on him, talking in his other ear about a place he heard about down the road where the drinks are cheaper and the girls are prettier, and Bruce is saying, "No one's – Jason."

"No, I guess for that you could always send me a text," Jason says. He's being too loud, but the _bar_ is loud, and it's been seven months since he saw so much as a bat signal. "It's too hard to keep track of all your new kids."

"Jason, I only wanted to see –"

Jason hands the phone off to Roy, wanders off to the back of the bar, to the next and then the next until he finds what he's looking for – earlier thirties, dark hair, blue eyes and a tired smile. Not quite good enough, not quite what Jason wants or needs, but at least he doesn't have to go home.

*

On his birthday, Bruce manages to get a card out to him in Milwaukee, where he and Roy are staying in a room above a bar.

Jason leaves the room, steps outside to have a cigarette before he calls Bruce.

"Yes?" Bruce says. It's 7 o'clock in Gotham, which means judging by the background noise Bruce is at a partying pretending to be someone else. Jason's sure there's a girl on his arm, a glass of champagne somewhere nearby that Bruce will dump into a flowerpot at the soonest opportunity.

"You know, my death anniversary wasn't too long ago, either. Why not a card for that?"

There's a pause, and Bruce says, "Excuse me," to a couple of different people before the noise in the background dies off and Bruce says, _really_ Bruce says, "Jason."

"How did you find me, anyway?"

"You haven't exactly been quiet. I wanted to come myself, but I wasn't sure if –"

"You know I've never been much for birthdays, Bruce. And what the hell kind of excuse would you make up for going to Milwaukee?"

"I've never needed an excuse to see you, Jason," Bruce says, and it's not that Jason thinks he's lying, not that he thinks Bruce is fucking _full_ of it, it's just –

"Eight months, Jason. Eight months, seven days –"

Fourteen hours. Jason knows, maybe knows down to the minutes. He's not going to say it, wouldn't even if he could talk past the lump in his throat, but he fucking _knows_.

"How's the party?" Jason asks.

"Terrible," Bruce says. "Everyone keeps handing me drinks."

"Shame I'm not there to help you out with that one, huh?" Bruce hums. "Remember ¬when you dragged me to that thing out in New York," Jason starts. "All that champagne…"

He can still see the big gaudy lights of the penthouse, can taste the pink champagne bubbling on his tongue, can smell Bruce's aftershave when he had to carry Jason out to the car, making all kinds of excuses.

Bruce must have been furious, but he didn't say anything, just let Jason curl up in his lap once they were in the car, tangled his fingers in Jason's hair until he fell asleep.

"I remember," Bruce says now. "Jay," he says.

"I'm not coming back, Bruce," Jason blurts before Bruce can ask. "I've got – I'm –"

"I won't ask you to come home," Bruce says, and Jason doesn't say _if you **told** me to, I would_. "I only – wanted you to know that I think about you. That I hope you're – well."

"Yeah," Jason says. His heart's beating too fast and he's out of cigarettes. "Yeah, you too, Bruce."

He hangs up, stumbles through the bar and back upstairs. He thinks about waking Roy up, but settles for curling up on the bed next to him, listening to the noise of traffic downstairs until he falls asleep.


End file.
